Pratchet's Color of Magic is a no brainer mate.

Oh and avoid everything by David Feuntuch.

If you want Short Stories then try anything from Harry Harrison or Harlan Ellison.

I'll throw my hat in the ring and recommend Eric Rucker Eddison. I admit not getting around to finishing what I own of his (Styrbiorn the Strong) but it is really good and well written. Actually, even in the little I have seen of the man's other works his prose has a quality to it that just seems to artful, and he was one of those early fantasy writer with commendations from Ursula Le Guin, C. S. Lewis, and Tolkien.

I'd be willing to second Children of Hurin. If you're up for it, any of the big Icelandic sagas (Laxardal, both of the Vinland Sagas, Egil's Saga, and I hear very good things about Grettir the Strong). Volsung Saga I'll second also. And, while I'm at it, The Grim Company is also very good fairly light, but decently moody and dark fantasy. I enjoyed it, but it feels kinda video game-y.

David Eddings has been mentioned once before in this thread, but I'd recommend his classic series, The Belgariad.

I really, really liked Red Rising by Pierce Brown. It's a trilogy and one of the best I've read in a while.

I also liked the book ex-heros By Peter Clines. There are other books in the series, but none as good. It's a "cheaper" kind of novel though. Zombies and super heros, but still good.

Finally, I'll second some of the classics, A Princess of Mars, Issac Asimov, and The Forever War.

And, given it's age, is available free online, as are the other Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter books, so there's no reason not to give it a try. :-)

Aldous Huxley - Brave New World
P.D. James - The Children of Men
George Orwell - 1984
H.G Wells - The Island of Dr Moreau

Not the most well versed in the subject but maybe Brent Weeks Black Prism? It's a little weird/unique, but I liked it. It's fantasy delivered almost like a science( that probably only make sense to someone that's read it). I do think he has something of a "as luck would have it" problem. I don't remember the Night Angel books being quite so much like that. I think his stuff has been the most constantly enjoyable for me over the last couple of years. [url= http://www.amazon.com/Black-Prism-Lightbringer-Brent-Weeks/dp/0316246271/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1460591146&sr= 8-1&keywords=the+black+prism]Black Prism[/url]

I would like to read more of Cherie Priest's books. I've only read "Boneshaker" which is steampunk with zombies. I did have one sizable problem with it, but I felt like the quality of the writing was quite a bit higher in respects than some of the other vapid adventuring books I've tried to get into. One of the opening scenes is an argument between family members that felt pretty realistic. Boneshaker

There were a number of books I've tried that I struggled to get into, or liked but not sure they are for everyone. Consider this general info. Mistborn seemed interesting enough as a fantasy world, but halfway through the first book I was still struggling with finding a main character believable. I don't know that I can say anything worse about it at the moment, and I kind of would like to finish it up. Some of it did seem done right, but the one thing was tough for me. It's a series, it's well reviewed, and I got all the books sold DRM-free, so that was cool.

I read about 1 and a half of the Stormlord books by Glenda Larke. I kind of like what I've read, but I'm not sure it's for everyone. I think my main issue with it is the author may have different ideas as to what constitutes cool than I do. I think she is quite a bit older than I am and that may be why. It's got that "my parents think that is so cool, but it's kinda dumb" feeling to it. BUT some of it is cool, so.... It maybe a guilty pleasure.

Just finished "Written in Red" which did a good job of getting me into it initially, although I knew a lot of the danger hype in the beginning was going to magically mellow just so there could be a story. It was fine, but it had a weird undertone to it. If pressed to guess, I would say the book is a book about outsiders, written by an outsider. It just feels like the author has some sort of disconnect with social norms or something and that bleeds into the book or maybe is the point of it. That could be a good or bad depending on the reader. Probably won't change anyone's world, but it's not a waste of time if you run out of options.

One I really didn't like was the first Emberverse book "Dies the Fire." I like the idea of it, but I've never read something that was so overly technical/authentic. Way, way, WAY too much time spent explaining everything. There are a million books in the series so somebody must be reading them, but I'm anti-recommending it.

"Stormdancer: The Lotus War Book One" I have conflict on. I think I want to like it more than I do. It's hard to say anything bad about it beyond I'm not sure what to praise about it. Maybe the sequels have that missing substance I'm wishing was there for me.

Kitty!

And Lamb was great, though some might take offense.

Spider-Man The Venom Factor by Diane Duane
X-wing The Solo Command by Arron Allston

Good point. I highly recommend browsing through the titles available on the Gutenberg Project. All public domain, so all free. Some very good reads available there.

Yes, Project Gutenberg is a very valuable resource. I recommend Alice in Wonderland (the first work of fiction to appear on the project).

I found it useful, for example, to get some text to feed into my predictive text generator.

If you are looking for sheet music, there's also IMSLP. (Of course, novels and sheet music are completely different things, but the idea of making public domain works available is the same.)

(One more thing: the book is not age. (Just had to make a joke about a grammar mistake. Sorry!))

Stephen King. He's a bit out of fashion these days, but there's a ton of great books in his library. Pet cemetery, The Shining, Misery, It, all great reads.

Jim Butcher and his Dresden Files series. Good, relaxing reading.

Marketing. Tom Holt is a "humor" writer. KJ Parker is a fantasy writer. Thomas Holt is a historical novel writer.

His humor is weird. I started reading his books when someone claimed he was "the American Terry Pratchett" (which is straight-up wrong because he's British, too). The difference is that Pratchett's Discworld books form a continuous series, the reader tends to be in on the jokes, and the author is nicer to the characters. Holt's books are standalone (or standalone trilogies as the case may be), he's more of a biting satirist, and there's always this feeling that there's a joke on me flying over my head. Which it is, because the ending is often tragic or depressing. It kinda plays off people's innate feelings of superiority, portraying characters as largely comedic figures, then a page in the end packs a punch right in the feels, with no pagecount left to process it and reach the state of contented kitchy enlightenment. Oh, and he's alive.

I've read Expecting Someone Taller. It has one of the less-depressing endings, more The Master and Margarita and less A Storm of Swords / IHNMaIMS.